South Philly Y'all

Needless to say I was excited when I got the message that Alex made it down from New Haven to visit his brother Brett in Philly. Being in NJ all morning surfing, I didn't have to think twice about driving into Philly Saturday night to have some wine, go out for dinner and stay out too late with the brothers. Seeing old friends is always great, especially when it's two of your best friends from childhood.

Brett's got a new dog, which pleasantly greeted me upon my arrival at his new apartment. The thing is a nuts ball of energy, but really a good pup that loves the attention I'm sure Brett provides. We ended up chilling and catching up at the apartment for awhile about Alex's new job in wine and liquor distribution, changes in Brett's life, as well as my own. We continued the conversation at a great BYOB Italian restaurant on 20th street called D'Angelo's Ristorante. While it was 100 degrees in the place, the spicy bacon wrapped grilled shrimp I had as an appetizer were worth dealing with the oppressive heat and lack of AC. A pear and beet salad was also a cool, fresh and perfect completion to my meal.

We continued down 20th to visit one of Brett's bartending buddies, had a few drinks at Twenty Manning for old time's sake, visited big Mike at Barristers and then finished the night up at The Bards. Alex and I were the last standing, so we jumped in a cab to soak up the night's events with a greasy classic philly cheesesteak (wiz without) from Pat's King of Steaks. Had to stop at a couple ATMs to get cash for our chow, but when all was said and done, it was a necessary notch in belt to cap off a great weekend in the Philadelphia area.

Reminiscing Marina del Rey

With a week off from Sag Harbor, I finally had the opportunity to visit two best friends from law school, and my former roommates from from our clerkships in Los Angeles. So, on Friday from work, I hopped into my car and sped down to the Ocean City area of New Jersey to meet with Shawn and Maria Weede, crashing at her parents beach condo. John Stapleton met us at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning to go surfing. While I hadn't really spent any time surfing in LA, I definitely enjoyed the experience and challenge of standing on a piece of fiberglass in constantly moving water. It was freezing, the sun and beach were beaming, and the rush gained from a wave propelling me and the board forward forced an immediate smile and cheer.

Catching up with friends and talking about new and exciting things going on in their lives is definitely refreshing and worth looking up to. Shawn and Maria were amped talking about their recent purchase of a house in Westchester, PA, and diligently planning extensive renovations to the home before moving in (nearly doubling the square footage of the house!). We shared stories about recent life experiences, relationships and things to look forward to. The connection I've always had with Shawn from a philosophical perspective is well maintained even though we don't talk that often any more.

I then left Shawn behind so he could prepare for an upcoming trial, and drove to the Stapleton's new Philadelphia suburban home to visit John, Heather and their first son Noah. First time I've been able to meet the little strawberry blond kid, and he is cuter than ever... which he must have gotten from his mother. We watched him romp around the house, and I was surprised that at 7 months he is nearly walking on his own. He's a tall, strong kid, and super fun. John and I couldn't help but get excited and discuss our upcoming fantasy football season too. After a little bbq with him, I then ventured into Philly to continue my reunion of sorts in my old law school town.

My Triple Lindy

I'm officially retiring before I get hurt. Enjoy the farewell triple lindy.
(click picture to enlarge)

Steamers, Mussels and Lobster!

Weekends spent in Sag Harbor keep getting more enjoyable, because we are finding our niche with people in town, venturing off to new restaurants and experiencing fresh things. Most importantly, I had the opportunity to have my sister Kate visit and good friend Jason. This week I ended up leaving early Friday morning and working from the house. Owen headed out with me, and we were able to venture into town during the day for a bite to eat and to scout what would be an incredible menu for a huge lobster cookout on Saturday. We visited the Dock House and met the owner Rob, who would hook us up with a caldron to cook 15 1.5 lbs lobsters, 10 pounds of steamers and 10 pounds of mussels. It hopefully would become a useful connection for other cookouts at the house. After leaving the Dock House, we trekked over to Sen Sushi and made another serendipitous connection by talking to a girl eating out front who would be hostessing the restaurant that evening. When Jon, Owen, me, Kate and Emily went for dinner that evening, she set us up in the back bar area where we jumped into a great assortment of sushi and cocktails. Dinner was a blast, along with some sake bombs and late night reveling.

On Saturday, Owen and I made a trip into town and got all the fixins' for a fantastic dinner. With the main seafood courses mentioned above, we picked up 4 lbs of London broil that we marinated in a ginger sesame bbq sauce, grilled corn on the cob and roasted red potatoes in garlic, olive oil, shallots and fresh herbs. Owen and Dan were great with steaming all the shellfish and lobster, which turned out perfectly.

We spent the evening partying around the house, playing a little beer pong (including in the pouring rain). Days were spent as usual basking in the sun, tossing the bocce, and enjoying the rest and relaxation afforded being away from the city. Always worth while when spent with friends.

Sunday Morning w/ the French Open

Sunday morning's menu was planned on the drive out earlier Friday. The French Open final was set between two great champions of today; Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer facing off for the 4th time in a row. So, we set out to have a French-style breakfast for the start of the match. We began with Champagne cocktails and made crepes with nutella, fresh bananas and blueberries, which turned out perfectly. Unfortunately, Nadal ended up wiping the court with Federer to win his fourth French Open in a row, cementing himself as one of the greatest clay court players of all time.

The rest of Sunday was a usual wind down day, throwing a frisbee around for a bit, with others leaving periodically while a few of us delayed our inevitable return back to the city. We had plans to watch the second game of the Lakers-Celtics series and then drive back around 11pm to avoid traffic, but we did not expect or plan for the incredible lightening storm that would pass through and cut-out power to our house, as well as 25+ thousand others across eastern long island. By candlelight we ate a simple dinner, cleaned up around the dark house and left the barren neighborhood to head home.

Flying inverted...

A morning full of spicy bloody mary's, Palame's veggie omelettes for the house, and classic rock blaring. A rainy day, bocce ball and the guys were out to play. It was time for the very special olympic diving, starring yours truly with layout back flips by me (above) and full-on belly flops by Dan "Leave a Message" Bennett (below). Props to Lara for grabbing the camera and catching these shots.

Greg was dumped in the pool, we all survived and relaxed for the greater part of the afternoon, playing games of Stratego and Hotels. Owen and I took a ride into town to get swordfish steaks for dinner, and ended up stopping by the American Hotel for a chic, Maker's Mark manhattan and conversation with the owner of a local gallery, the Uberhouse... where she recommended Steven's Talkhouse as a fun place to go out. Greg, Owen and Dan checked it out and definitely came back in the highest of spirits. I can't wait to go myself this weekend.

Murf's Locals Crowd goes down...

After the core four arrived earlier Friday, we bbq'd a great steak, chicken in bulls-eye sauce, and self selected veggies for fresh kabobs. It was a beautiful afternoon at the house, and a great way to relax after a long week with late nights (including Thursday to watch the Lakers clinch the Western conference finals at Bounce Deuce). We decided to show Bennett the townie bars in Sag Harbor since it was his first time up at the house, and we went to Cigar Bar, Corner Bar and then Murf's. Definitely did our fair share of drinking, playing ring toss, and then darts until every local in town wanted to beat us. Dan and I held the board for the better part of the night after all of us had a chance to play together for awhile. Once we finally lost to a kid with coke bottle glasses, we decided to head out... fatefully having a cab waiting for us outside to bring us back to the house.

Burger Heaven

A simple menu while Richie and I chilled and watched the NBA playoffs: 80% lean ground beef, garlic, coarse sea salt, oregano, pepper, finely chopped red onion. Patted out softly and shaped to not bruise the meat. Topped with cheddar, then melted. This season's first burger, medium rare, and amazing on the polish wheat roll with Valentina Salsa Picante hot sauce from L'Esquina. Potatoes grilled with olive oil, red onion & jalapeños. Romaine lettuce cut lengthwise, brushed w/ olive oil, fresh garlic, salt and pepper. Flash grilled for light char marks and then covered with chopped tomatoes and blue cheese. The grill always abides.

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo marked the first house warming BBQ. Kate helped prepare a mean meal that was perfect for the occasion, fitting for the 15+ people that would be able to come... and I thank you. Preparations began a couple weeks earlier, with me hunting for ancho chiles. Why? Once discovered at Citarella on the UES, the fine spicy dried poblano peppers were sliced and dropped into a bottle of Sauza gold anejo tequila, to start the infusing process. It's sister infusion would be a fresh ginger and pineapple blend in Sauza silver anejo tequila. Shaken once a day, the bottles would take on the flavor of these additions for the 5th of May. Once mixed with margarita mix, people got to enjoy either the spicy or sweet side of life. Variety was not spared, with Dos Equis Amber and Lager Especial, El Presidente, Sol and Corona Light highlighting the beer selections.

For dinner, Kate helped select apt latin fares from two new cookbooks: Bobby Flay's Boy Gets Grill and the Barbecue! Bible. She tossed hearty chicken drumsticks in a chipotle chile and garlic marinate. I cleaned and seasoned boneless, skinless chicken thighs in a jerk/cinnamon spice blend. To compliment the jerked chicken, I made my first hot sauce! Habenero chiles were sauteed with 2 diced mangoes, finely chopped red onion and then simmered in vinegar, honey and salt and pepper. Once smoothly blended, this added a spicy sweet topping for the jerked chicken. Expecting many, Richie also graciously picked up flank steaks that I rubbed in adobo spices, which flash grilled to a nice medium rare and turned out as tender as ever. Sides included black beans and rice, each garnished with fresh cilantro, corn on the cob, and plenty of chocolate truffles for the sweet tooth.

It was great to have friends together, some that I hadn't seen in a while. It's just too bad that Cinco de Mayo came and went on a Monday, because it held us in check. However, the apartment, the garden, and the trusted charcoal fire proved to work perfectly together to entertain my friends. Can't wait to do it again.

The Secret Garden Grows

Birthday shopping by my sisters gifted plants from Buffalo to adorn the garden. They were thoughtfully selected by Kate and Megan because the plants should bloom red, white and blue. And the serendipity of the situation for me is fitting.... I needed plants, now I unexpectedly will have a garden flowering the colors of my hometown Buffalo Bills. Nice.

Double Yellows and Fog Lines

The weekend of April 26th marked a mini-reunion of sorts for three original friends from North Buffalo who met in their first days as 5th graders in 1987 at City Honors. I had the fortunate opportunity to drive up to Binghamton, NY to first stop in and visit Pete and Sue Malejs (and their little one that is due in August) before Peter and I would drive up to Ithaca on Saturday morning to golf with Greg Halpern. Pete and I woke at the crack of dawn to get to our 9:24 am tee time just east of Ithaca. We arrived early, hit some warm up shots on the driving range, and were ready to tee off.

But where was Greg? Always timely, we saw Greg rolling up in his Honda Element, which would later be the chariot of the most memorable moment of the weekend. He jetted out of the car in thick black pants, ankle high calf leather shoes and a tee-shirt, fittingly from his girlfriend's place. We fitted him up with shorts, he rented some clubs and by 9:40am we were fashionably late on the first tee.

Golf was great all around, catching up on life over the last few years, hearing stories about Pete teaching and bringing technology to his literature classes in Binghamton, Greg following his camera's lens from workshops in Oklahoma, to his classroom at Cornell and soon to Harvard. I discussed my new gig at Colony, life in NYC and the great experiences each bring to my days. But as the temperature crept to the high 70s, the turn after the ninth hole was the perfect moment to fuel up and start enjoying the last 9 with a few cold beverages. Needless to say the last 9 were more fun, and started a great journey partying together for the rest of the evening.

We made it back to the sculpting professor's house Greg was watching up in Ovid, NY. We fired up the grill and finished off marinated squid, succulent BBQ chicken, fresh corn on the cob, and melon. Pete mixed up some great margaritas, where we nearly polished off an entire bottle of tequila because they were so good. Music entertained whether from an iPod or LP record player (yes! both ends of the technological spectrum), and we even intermissed with a call to good old Dan Cotter in San Diego. We laughed and reminisced together for almost an hour.

Our night really began and ended when we went out in Trumansburg, care of our designated driver Greg (and thank god he was). After fooseball, darts and a few Irish carbombs at the Rongovian Embassy, we headed home... but only to be pulled over by two cops who couldn't have been old enough to drink themselves. Our trusted designated driver handled the situation like a charm, gladly passed field sobriety tests, and we were on our merry way, crossing double yellow lines, then the fog line, then the double yellows, and then the fog line again. It is something the three of us will definitely look forward to doing again, and hopefully much sooner than the previous gap between seeing each other.

Columbus Circle - late night

Exiting the Stone Rose 4/17/08, after downing

Perfect Rob Roys and multiple Stone Roses

(Maker's Mark reserve bourbon, Grand Marnier,

cranberry juice, and simple syrup).

Old friends take in Yankees v. Red Sox

Thursday April 17th really marked the first beautiful, perfect day of spring.... a 70 degree day full of sunshine and spring filled spirits. It also was the second night of a two day home game series between the Yankees and the Red Sox. The Yanks won in brilliant fashion on Wednesday, with one of the highest outputs in runs between the two teams in over 60 years! Thursday night turned out to be high octane too, but the Yankees didn't fare as well in the end.

In the morning, after dealing with my bathroom wall getting ripped open so a plumber could replace a leaky cold-water valve, I was the beneficiary of an extra ticket from Ryan Quinn to join him, James and Mike Jordan. So, after buzzing up to the stadium, the four of us finally met and were set to go in the game. We faced two distinct obstacles. First, Mike hiked his blood pressure through the clouds having to sacrifice his backpack for uptight security precautions. Second, as we presented our tickets to the ticket taker, they amusingly pointed out that we were holding tickets to the Yankees/ Red Sox game set for Tuesday, August 26th! Ryan came down to NYC with the wrong game tickets. Thankfully, he was able to convince customer service to print up four new tickets for last night's game, and we made it to our seats in the bottom of the third inning- Yanks 0, Red Sox 2. And then Manny uncorked a huge two-run homer to put the Red Sox up 4-nil.

The crowd turned out to be as entertaining as the late comeback by the Yankees, who ultimately fell short in a 7-5 loss. Multiple fights took place right around us. A cop got hit in the back of the head by a hot dog (bringing intense rage upon his face), and even though a Yankee fan threw it, all hands pointed to a Red Sox joker. A pretty little g-stringed bearing lass, who clearly had too much to drink, also started yelling at anything that moved... with more spunk and stupidity than you could believe.



We emptied the stadium that Ruth built, in its last year to host the Yankees (new stadium pictured above), and went off for beers and burgers before dredging off separately to NYC, Brooklyn, NJ and Connecticut. Yankees/Red Sox, good college friends, 12 beers each and burgers... always a great time.

Haubentake2

With long travel times from the four corners of the U.S. and high expectations, friends of Adam Golfenreich descended upon Sunset Beach, N.C., for a weekend of debauchery and recounting old tall tales about Lord Golfenreich. The cast of characters included Adam, Kevin, Raj, Jim, Shane, Brian, Dave Min, myself, Greg, Dave Nemecek, Tony and Rene. Friday night began with a feast of a half a swine (pictured right), fried chicken, baked beans, hush puppies and coleslaw.




All imbibed mass quantities of beer and Jack Daniels Green Label over rounds of beer pong, cups and non-stop laughs. We all eventually trailed off to sleep to get up early for a round of golf at Thistle golf club. Battling decent breezes, sand and water traps, we splashed and lost many balls during a beautiful day on the course.

Waiting by the 18th green (pictured left), the groups gathered to memorialize a day where Nemo took the longest drive and closest to the pin awards. What a testament to everyone else sucking today.

After a brief respite, we loaded into the chariot (a Black stretch hummer), and headed to Rioz for a great Brazilian steakhouse style dinner, enough drinks to kill a small army, and a good base before heading to the Masters. Mrs. Haubenreich even confirmed we were in the presence of a state bible champion! The Masters couldn't have been a better opportunity to see the best players in the country and have our eyes opened by some of the most incredible shots out there. No one left without a smile on their face this weekend, including this guy....
... and next, the wedding!

Up on the East Side.

So, after a whirlwind February and March in my life, I've pretty much completed set up at the new apartment in midtown-upper east Manhattan... just in time for my 31st birthday on March 31st. The place is coming together nicely, and it will be a great space for entertaining friends, enjoying good wines and great eats from the BBQ on the patio. The new flat screen is successfully mounted, the hand woven carpet from Delhi, India graces the dining room floor, and the place is really starting to feel like a home. With the break of spring, I'm looking forward to planting the garden area and sharing tasty blogs about upcoming shin digs with friends, family or whoever.

Del Friscos Double Eagle Steakhouse (June 30, 2006)

Dinner at Del Frisco's was exquisite, beginning with massive shrimp w/ three sauces, breadless lumped crabcakes and 3 dozen oysters. A bone-in rib eye came seared with a perfectly pink cool medium-rare center, and impeccable flavors from the natural fats, cracked pepper rub and grill char. However, sommelier Scott Gould treated the table to an unbelievable progression of old world wine, rich and deep cabernet alternatives in the tempranillo and shiraz, and a pristine, inspiring brandy-like 1912 Malvazia (port). The corks pulled as follows:

• Charmes-Chambertin: 2002, A. Rousseau Pere & Fils, Pinot Noir (Cotes de Nuits - Burgundy)
• Chateau Rayas Reserva: 2001, Red Rhone Blend (Chateauneuf-du-Pape - Rhone)
• Chateau-de-Beaucastel: 1995, Red Rhone Blend (Chateauneuf-du-Pape - Rhone)
• Bodega Numanthia Termes: 2003, Tempranillo (Castillo y Leon - Toro, Spain)
• Marquis Phillips Integrity: 2002, Shiraz (McLaren Vale - South Australia)
• Barbieto: Riserva Velha 1912, Malvazia (Bual - Madiera, Portugal)

The night was capped off with Banfi grappa and a little shop talk with friends from work. Definitely a highlight in my relatively short time appreciating wine.